DRS yeshiva seniors honored at science expo for exceptional work

DRS senior Avi Moisa’s project, “Can Your Eyes Define You? A Correlation of Dissociative Capacity to Personality Traits and Learning Styles,” has been accepted for presentation at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association this august in Washington, D.C.

The opportunity to present one’s research at this professional meeting is quite an achievement. The review committee of APA Division 15 (Society for Educational Psychology) received hundreds of proposals, and it is rare for college seniors, let alone high school seniors to have their work selected. In fact, Avi is one of just a handful of high school students ever chosen as lead author on an APA presentation in the convention’s 127 year history.

The acceptance of Avi’s abstract signals that his work is regarded very highly, even when compared to the submissions of graduate level scholars. Avi was honored along with his academic advisors and DRS faculty members Mr. Stephen Sullivan and Mr. Gerald Schmugar.

DRS senior Yonatan Edelstein recently submitted his science research project, “ZNP-1: A new stain for cell populations in Rabbit Retina,” to the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair. This project, prepared under the direction of DRS Science Research Advisor Dr. Winston, used ZNP-1, a stain used to identify certain cell populations in mice, in rabbit retinas.

Yonatan’s research lead to the discovery of new cell populations, and it is hoped that this discovery will help medical researchers learn more about diseases of the retina in the human population, such as glaucoma.

Yonatan’s project was selected as one of 12 LISEF finalists in the state for his category, and he is one round away from making it to the international science fair competition.